Aug 8 1975
From The Space Library
NASA launched Cos-B scientific satellite for the European Space Agency at 3:48 pm PDT from Western Test Range on a threestage thrust-augmented Thor-Delta booster. Launch had been delayed for 2 days because a telemetry aircraft was grounded with hydraulic-valve failure. The satellite entered the planned highly elliptical polar orbit with a 99 86-km apogee, 344-km perigee, 36.7-hr period, and 90.13° inclination. NASA's objective for the launch was to place Cos-B into a highly elliptical near-polar orbit with sufficient accuracy to allow the satellite to conduct its planned scientific experiments.
Purpose of the Cos B mission was to study extraterrestrial gamma radiation in the energy range 25 mev to 1 gev in order to establish the intensity of the average gamma-ray flux; examine large-scale anisotropy of the radiation over angular regions corresponding to galactic features; study quasars, x-ray, and radio sources of small angular size in supernova remnants; measure energy spectra of various galactic radiations; and study time variations of radiation from pulsars, x-ray, and radio sources.
On 11 August, ground controllers sent low-voltage commands from ESA's space operations center (ESOC) in West Germany to check out spacecraft and experiment performance. After a second switch-on at high voltage, a series of inflight tests further validated all onboard systems and experiment performance. On 15 Aug. a complete review of spacecraft operational status showed all air and ground systems were operating normally; by 19 Aug., the first data had been returned to earth.
COs-B, first satellite launched for the newly organized ESA, was the eighth developed by ESA's predecessor, the European Space Research Organization [see 30-31 May]. Under the direction of the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) and prime contractor Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm GmbH, Cos-B had been designed and built by organizations in 7 of the 10 ESA member countries. The single experiment-a 115-kg spark chamber-had been assembled from five primary and two subsidiary experiment units supplied by six institutes in four European countries. After separating from the launch vehicle, Cos B transmitted data in real time to ground stations of the European Space Tracking Network with central control at the European Space Research Operations Center in West Germany.
For NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center had the responsibility for the Thor-Delta launch vehicle under the direction of the Office of Space Science. GSFC also had responsibility for limited tracking support. (NASA MOR S-492-301-75-01, 22 July 75, 10 Sept. 75; NASA Release 75-214; Releases 7-19 Aug 75)
Science magazine reported that U.S. scientists had reprogrammed NASA's Landsat-1 earth resources satellite (formerly called Erts 1, launched 23 July 1972) to photograph large areas of the Soviet Union, although not specifically requested to do so by Soviet officials. The magazine reported that the intent of the U.S. scientists was to aid Soviet scientists, after discussions at a series of 1972 joint working group meetings-convened for geological studies of comparable land sites in each country-indicated that the Soviets had nothing available to them equivalent to this kind of satellite imagery. Because the Soviet government was sensitive, about U.S. satellites flying over the U.S.S.R., the Soviet scientists who were to benefit had never been directly informed about the reprogramming decision. Resulting images had never been directly handed over to the Soviet scientists lest doing so should violate the 1972 joint space agreement signed by both countries. Science quoted Goddard Space Flight Center's Dr. William Nordberg, scientist responsible for the reprogramming, as saying, "They knew where they could buy them." Science also reported that the Soviet scientists had ordered the Landsat images from the U.S. Geological Survey's Sioux Falls distribution center. Dr. Nordberg denied that any of the reprogrammed imagery had been done for "economic espionage." (Science, 8 Aug 75, 441-2)
Photographs from Landsat-1 (launched 23 July 1972 as Erts 1, [[Earth Resources Technology Satellite]]) indicated that a continental collision had been in progress between India and Eurasia, pushing China eastward at the rate of 2.54 centimeters a year, Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists reported in Science. This eastward movement could account for China's unusual pattern of earthquakes-widespread instead of along narrow fault lines, the MIT geologists suggested. Despite the current theory that the Indian subcontinent was sliding under Eurasia, the MIT scientists had concluded that rigid Indian plates of rock were causing China to be pushed into the Pacific. (Molnar et al., Science, 8 Aug 75, 419-425; NYT, 10 Aug 75,49)
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